Ask Grandstander

[perfectstormhits]

Is this the year the Dallas Cowboys win their sixth Super Bowl?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by perfectstormhits

Is this the year the Dallas Cowboys win their sixth Super Bowl?

Definitely not. The earliest they could possibly win a Superbowl would be the next one played and that will be played in 2008.

[skrable]

What would you say to a Mets fan about the end of their season?

[vtred]

Weekly "what if" fight match-up:

1964 Phillies vs. 2007 Mets?

(oh and there is nothing you can say to us Mets fans right now, beyond numb)

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by skrable

What would you say to a Mets fan about the end of their season?

"Chin up, they sure battled you know."

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by vtred

Weekly "what if" fight match-up:

1964 Phillies vs. 2007 Mets?

(oh and there is nothing you can say to us Mets fans right now, beyond numb)

I've given it some thought and at first I was thinking that the nod goes to the '64 Phillies for a several reasons. First, half of the Mets collapse story is actually the Phillies comeback story. The Mets enjoyed a 7.5 game lead with 17 to play and a reversal of 8 games was required for them to blow it. Yes, they went 5-12 down the stretch, but that would not have been a death blow had not Philadelphia gone 13-4 during the same time period. In short, the Mets lost exactly the number that they needed to lose and the PHillies won exactly the number they need to win...not one game more. So '07 is a split blew it/comeback memory. The second factor is that the Phillies staged a spectacular ten game losing streak. The third factor is that we may blame the manager Gene Mauch for over using his best pitchers down the stretch.

In '64, the Giants, the Cardinals and the Reds were all bunched together behind the Phillies and while they played well, it was really Philadelphia losing ten consecutive games which did trick.

But.....now that I recall, the '64 Phillies didn't blow it on the last day of the season, they had already done that a couple of days earlier. The Phillies actually won their last two games, but it was too late.

The Mets however, pulled off the stunt of auto destruct in the most dramatic possible manner...right down to the final day they could still have averted disaster. Adding to the color of it all was having Glavine on the mound and having him pitch the worst inning of his entire career at the worst possible moment. The final nail is that the Mets managed to drop their last 8 games in a row against the Phillies.

So....it's close....but I'm gonna rule that this Mets collapse replaces the '64 Phillies as the official worst calamity. The intangibles tilt it that way.

[LaxD]

You vs. Sugarbaby

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by LaxD

You vs. Sugarbaby

Sorry, but the long standing policy here has been to refrain from any sort of comment on any other "ask" thread.

[Simp]

While perusing the biography section at the library I noticed that Jimi Hendrix was followed by Henry VIII. There are no surnames in royalty?

[phenweigh]

South Korea vs Taiwan

[jtur88]

What network will be televising the Padres-Rockies game?

------------edit-------------

Oh wait, I think I found it Googling [ padres rockies televiision ] I got the online page of the White Plains Journal News, that says it will be TBS.

Now, new question: Does TBS mean "To Be Selected", or is the Braves network coming to our rescue, now that Fox and ESPN have fulfilled their contractual obligations and given only contemptuous scorn to the fans again.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by Simp

While perusing the biography section at the library I noticed that Jimi Hendrix was followed by Henry VIII. There are no surnames in royalty?

Sure, Henry the VIII was actually Henry Heodrix.

[LaxD]

who would you consider the greatest Runningback of all-time?

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by phenweigh

South Korea vs Taiwan

I'm a South Korea admirer. They have been a really loyal ally over the years, always willing to donate troops to whatever cause the US has asked. They have morphed from the trappings of democracy to a legitimate democracy, they have been an economic sucess story, I tip my hat to em.

Taiwan has the legacy of Chiang Kai-shek who is someone well short of my favorite US ally. He ran a one party jail the opposition operation there which was what we could have expected for all of China if he had managed to defeat Mao. He then served as a one man roadblock to normal relations with the real China until the late '70's.

After Chiang crapped out, Taiwan has also managed to turn into a legitimate democracy, but there is still that Chiang aftertaste.

[Grandstander]

Originally Posted by LaxD

who would you consider the greatest Runningback of all-time?

Cornelius Connie Colzie...or Neil Colzie who had a reasonably distinguished football career at Ohio State (made All American) and a reasonably distinguished pro career with several teams as a defensive back.

But when I saw him it was as a running back for Coral Gables High School and he was the most exciting runner I ever saw. He was a do it your selfer, ignoring blocking patterns, ignoring routes, just scramble around and look for an opening. Thus, the typical Colzie carry would involve a handoff to him, a sudden stop before hitting the line, a couple of high speed cruises from sideline to sideline and back trying to find daylight, perhaps a strategic retreat of ten, or twenty, or thirty yards...and then whoosh! He'd spot a path and zoom through, gaining ten or 15 yards before stopping, cutting, and starting another side to side cruise followed by another sudden dash forward. I think he averaged something like nine yards a carry, but each play actually involved covering about half the football field.

And that wasn't even the best part, the best part was his kick return game, those would last for five minutes and utterly exhaust the opposition trying to run him down. I saw one game where he returned two punts and a kickoff for touchdowns and another where he returned a kickoff for a td, had it nullified by a penalty, they rekicked and he returned that for a touchdown.

I don't know why Ohio State converted him into a defensive back, maybe Colzie's free wheeling style didn't fit with their program.

I hadn't thought of him in a long time and just now went to see what might be on the net about him and discovered that he died back in Miami in 2001 at the age of 47...heart attack.